Two-riffic
by tombombadillo
Summary: It's double the giggles, and double the grins, and double the trouble if you're blessed with twins - Anon


**Baby twin fic, for Ris. As always. Love you, sweetheart.**

* * *

Castle went to sleep the previous night expecting to be on his own when he woke up. Kate insisted that she needed girl time, two bottles of wine and Lanie Parish and an awful lot of giggling and talking about men. He'd waved her off with a smile because she hasn't been back to her apartment in weeks and he can hardly complain if she just wants a day, or a night, to herself. Or herself and Lanie. He doesn't want to get in the middle of that. So he goes to bed and he doesn't expect her. Only he's woken up by someone almost bouncing on top of him. And giggling. Kate. Kate's bouncing on his – their – bed and giggling.

"Mmph, Kate. Sleep." He grumbles, trying to find that comfy spot in the pillow again.

"_Castle_," she's insistent, that sing song, dark and husky tone that she uses when she just wants _something_ and he can _thoroughly_ give it her, "Castle, wake up."

"I'm not having drunk sex with you." He replies, opening one eye, though really if she wants to have drunk sex with him, he's not going to say no.

"Not drunk."

"You were with Lanie for the entire evening… and you're not drunk. Are you feeling okay?"

"Wasn't drinking."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, Castle. I'm fine. I am more than okay. I am positively fantastic."

His brow furrows and he looks at her carefully. She's giddy and happy and her eyes are shiny and her cheeks are a little too flushed. Well, if she's not drunk, there's something up."Are you sure you're not drunk?"

"Didn't drink a drop, I told you. Girls night with Lanie was just a ploy."

"You weren't with Lanie?"

"I was with Lanie. Just not for the reason that I told you. We were down at the morgue."

"You have a case?"

"No. We were doing tests. Blood tests."

He's sitting up at that. "Kate?! Blood tests, are you – you're not sick are you? Kate-"

"I'm not sick, Castle. At least… no, I'm not sick sick."

"You're not sick _sick_? Kate you're making no sense-"

"Castle, I'm pregnant." There's a moment of stunned silence where Castle stares at her, blue eyes so very, very dark in the dim light of the bedroom. "I've suspected it for a while, I mean I'm almost a month late and I'm usually quite regular, and I don't know, I've just had this _feeling_ and I wanted to know first. So I told Lanie, and I didn't want to use just an ordinary test. They're unpredictable and I wanted to be sure. So, Lanie took some blood, and we tested it… and I'm pregnant." He's still quiet, still staring at her, and she doesn't even think he's breathing. "Castle, please say something."

"I don't… are you sure?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure."

He's rolling them over before he can even say anything, crashes his mouth against hers. It's messy, but she can't stop smiling as she fists a hand in his hair. His hand is pushing up her top, resting low on her stomach even as she gets her hand against the waist band of his boxers. "How far?"

"Couple of months, I think. Give or take a week."

He sighs against her mouth, happy and delighted and she can feel the excitement vibrating off him. He's moving again, head shifting downwards until his forehead is pressed against the bottom of her ribcage. She can feel his breath against her stomach even as his fingers stroke just under her belly button. There's tears in her eyes, and she closes her eyes against them, tries to focus on Castle.

"Hey." He's moved again, rising up to nudge his nose against her cheek, soft and delicate and _oh,_ she can't remember why she was ever scared of this before. Of loving him, of being loved by him, sharing a bed and a life, and being one half of a whole. Of making this tiny, tiny person, of giving someone life. Even if that someone is barely a bundle of cells, they've done this. They've done it together. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm… I'm good."

* * *

"Well, I don't know how to tell you this, but you're expecting twins."

"Twins?!" Castle's face visibly pales, and his eyes go from Kate's abdomen to the screen and then back again multiple times. It makes Kate feel dizzy just watching. "There's… we're having two?"

Stephanie smiles, points a finger to the screen. "There's one, and there is…" she slides the ultrasound across Kate's skin, the image warping and changing until… "the other."

He hears Kate breathe out something that sounds a lot like _wow_, and he can't help but be a little blown away himself. "Can we find out the sexes?"

"They're not in the right position right now. They're hiding. Maybe the next time, if you want to know. But in the meantime, everything looks fine. They're growing at a healthy rate, no one seems to be hogging anything. You've got two completely healthy babies. Congratulations."

"They're really okay?"

"So far, they're perfectly fine. You can relax."

"But there's… something could go wrong?"

"I never rule out something going wrong until the babies are born and they're healthy. There's still the chance of premature labour, and there's things that could go wrong that we can't necessarily see right now. But, physically, they are fine. There's no need to worry."

"Right… okay."

"It's perfectly natural to be worried, particularly when it's your first time. But you can relax. They're doing good."

Castle squeezes Kate hand reassuringly, and she smiles back. He knows she was worried that there was something wrong, that they weren't growing properly, or one was growing more than the other, or they were going to come out deformed, or they wouldn't even be alive. He'd done what he could to quell her fears, but he doesn't understand that mother baby bond. Or he does understand it. He just doesn't _get_ it. And he can tell her that the baby (now babies) will be fine all he wants to, but she's the one with them growing inside her. She understands them better than he ever will. He always thought that he was going to be the one getting worked up about this, that he was going to demand tests and results and scans every other week, but he's been surprisingly calm. They've switched roles. Maybe it's helped that he's done this before, and Alexis is more perfect than he could ever hope for. Though he doesn't think he's lucky enough to get that again, let alone with two new children.

Stephanie leaves them so Kate can change, and she pushes herself up on the table, swinging herself round so her legs hang over the edge of the table. "We're having twins." She's breathless, and he can't quite work out if she's excited or on the verge of panicking. Maybe both.

"We're having twins."

"We're gonna need a bigger house."

* * *

"Castle, you are not using my belly as a shelf for your popcorn." She swats the paper bag of popcorn away from her, rolling her eyes when he pouts.

"But it's the perfect height. And none of us have to hold it. Seriously, lay sideways on the sofa, head in my lap. You can even have a cushion. And then, open bag on Thing One and Thing Two."

"I do wish you would stop calling them that. They're not Things."

"Kate, did you not read Cat in the Hat? I really need to educate you-"

"I am well aware of Cat in the Hat. But my kids are not Thing One and Thing Two. They are not Things."

"I _know_, but we don't want to know whether they're two boys, or two girls, or a girl and a boy. So, until then, nicknames. And the most obvious is Thing One and Thing Two. I mean I could call them TweedleDum and TweedleDee, but frankly that's just offensive."

"And being called Things isn't?" She's already throwing a cushion onto his lap, snatching the bag from his hands and lying back with a huff, setting the bag on her stomach so it doesn't fall over.

"No, it's Seuss. Seuss isn't offensive. Seuss is never offensive. I think they'd like their nicknames."

"They're only nicknames now. You can't call them Thing One and Thing Two when they're born."

"Well, not to their face-"

"_Castle_."

"Okay, okay." He's laughing, carding his fingers through her hair. "I won't call them Thing One and Thing Two when they're born."

"They will have actual names. They don't need to have nicknames."

"I have plenty of nicknames for you. You like your nicknames."

"Cos they're completely appropriate nicknames. You are not giving them stupid nicknames. I can veto anything you say. That's the rule."

Castle huffed, but Kate can tell he's not particularly annoyed. Nor is he going to give their kids stupid names. She still can't believe that this is a thing they're doing. She always thought, always wondered if they were going to end up with kids and married and a large house with a white picket fence. And they will, eventually. They're not doing it in quite the order she thought about, and they're not moving until the babies or a little bit older, but she'll marry him one day. If he doesn't ask her, she'll just have to do it herself.

* * *

"Nikki and Jameson."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Why not? Because it's Nikki and Jameson. It'd just be weird." He hums, tilts his head sideways so he can look at the cot. Two sleeping babies. A boy and a girl. Fat and healthy and completely utterly normal. Two completely normal babies wanting completely normal names. He was never very good at normal. Normal is boring. He doesn't want boring for his kids. He wants excitement and magic. "We don't need to name them now. They can live without names for a few days."

"It feels weird not naming them though. They're here and they're real and they should have names."

"Later. Names later. In the meantime, come here."

He turns around, raises an eyebrow at her. "Why?"

"I'm tired, and I want to sleep. And I want you here."

"I am here."

She actually whines at him, almost like a five year old herself, and if she hadn't just given birth to two absolutely beautiful babies. Their absolutely perfect and beautiful babies. He laughs, and toes off his shoes, waits as she shifts herself over to one side. It doesn't take long for him to climb up next to her, sighs happily when she curls up into his side. She's asleep quicker than he expected, he's barely got himself properly comfy before she's slack against him, eyes closed and soft breathing.

* * *

They don't name them for another week. They both hm and ha over names, reject some, put some aside to decide on later, but whether they pick, it just doesn't work. Eventually they bite the bullet, put all of the favoured names in a hat and pull them out. He's got his son in one arm, one hand in the hat on the desk. "This is kind of scary."

"Just do it."

Castle closes his eyes and then pulls his hand out. "Jake. His name is Jake."

Kate's nodding, her mouth pulling upwards into a smile. "Jake Alexander."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. It's nice. I like it. Move out the way, it's my turn."

Castle steps aside, shifting Jake to his other arm. He's barely a week old, but he's growing alarmingly quickly. Or it seems like it. He's heavy. His youngest daughter, unlike Jake, is awake, her eyes big and brown and so like her mothers, so completely focused on what appears to be the underside of Kate's chin. Well, whatever floats the kids boat. "Emma."

"Emma… Emma what?" Kate shrugs, suddenly drawn in by her daughter. "Alright, if Jake is an Alexander, then Emma is going to be Katherine. Will that do?"

Kate nods, but he knows she's not properly paying attention. She's so caught up by one of the tiny lives that she's helped bring into the world, with her tiny button nose, and her little puckered mouth, the soft sucking noises that she suddenly comes out with. Eyelashes, long and dark and casting shadows against her soft porcelain skin. He knows what it's like, to be so completely in awe of this tiny, tiny thing. He'll ask her again later.


End file.
